Brisbane Knights Football Club is an Australian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

club from

Rocklea Rocklea is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Rocklea had a population of 1,595 people. Geography Rocklea is located 9 kilometres south of the city. The west of the suburb is bordered by the Oxley Creek. The ...

, a suburb of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The club currently plays in the

Brisbane Premier League Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

, the first tier of senior

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in Brisbane (third tier in Queensland and fourth overall in

History

The club was initially formed in 1952 under the name HNK Croatia Brisbane but struggled to sustain a full squad of players for the entire season, so the club disbanded. With the steady growth of the Croatian community in following years, the club was reformed in 1957. On 15 May 1957 the club was registered with the governing federation as an official soccer club. The club also played under the names New Farm SC (from 1971-1974), Sunnyside United SC (1975-1987), Croatia Soccer Club (1988), Brisbane Croatia Soccer Club and Rocklea United SC. In the early years the club played at council grounds throughout Brisbane until 1970, when the local Croatian community purchased 50-odd acres of land at

, an inner city south-west suburb of Brisbane. In the 1980s the club competed in the

Recent History

After relegation from the

Capital League 1 Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

in 2013, the Knights managed immediate promotion in 2014, finishing runners up in the

Capital League 2 Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capitals, List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the dura ...

. In 2015, Knights finished fifth in League 1. Brisbane Knights hosted the 41st annual

Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament The Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament is a tournament run by the Croatian Soccer Federation of Australia and New Zealand, an organisation founded in 1974. The inspiration for the tournament came from the successful Croatian-North American So ...

in October 2015. It was the fourth time the Queensland club hosted the tournament, having previously hosted in 1982 (winning the tournament for the first and only time to date), 1989 and 2001.

Melbourne Knights FC Melbourne Knights Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in the suburb of Sunshine North, Melbourne. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, the second-tier of the Australian soccer league ...

took out their sixth title at the tournament. After another mid-table finish in 2016, Knights finished in third place in League 1 in 2017 and were promoted back to the Brisbane Premier League due to a league re-structure, where

Football Queensland Premier League The Football Queensland Premier League (known by its abbreviation FQPL) is a men's football competition contested by clubs in Queensland, Australia. It is administered by Football Queensland and is the second tier of football in Queensland, op ...

became the new state-wide second tier and the BPL became the third state tier. The Knights finished in the lower half of the BPL table in both 2018 and 2019. In January 2020, it was announced that

Gold Coast Knights SC Gold Coast Knights Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Carrara, Queensland, Australia. The Croatian Australian backed club play in the National Premier Leagues Queensland, the top flight of the Football Queensland administrativ ...

had assumed control of Brisbane Knights Football Club. The COVID-19 pandemic saw the Brisbane Knights field one Men's Brisbane Premier League squad. All matches were played as away fixtures whilst extensive repairs were conducted to the fields of the Brisbane Knights by the Gold Coast Knights Football Club. In 2021, the Brisbane Knights re-assumed control with the guidance from the Gold Coast Knights Football Club with teams in the Men's Brisbane Premier League, Masters Competition and Women's Brisbane City League. Their home continues to be the Croatian Club Brisbane in Rocklea and in February 2021, the main playing field was re-named the Ivan "Johnny" Mesic Memorial Field, named in honour of one the founders of the Club.

Honours

*Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament Champions 1982 *Ampol Cup Runner Up 1985 *Division 1 Champions 1999 *Division 1 Runner Up 1998

Notable players

Dario Vidošić Dario Vidošić ( ; ; (born 8 April 1987) is a former Australian footballer and current coach who is the interim manager of A-League Women club Melbourne City FC Women. Club career Early life Vidošić was born on 8 April 1987 in Osijek to ...

References

External links